o connor



42 Sheets-Sheet 1'.

P. F. OfCoNNo'R. -PLUNGER FOR SEWERS AND WATER GLOSETS. 598.

(No Model.)

Patented' Deo. 17, 1895.

WITNESSES ANnREw BLRANAM.PNOTDUYHaWASHINGTON DQ.

i PLUNGBR PoR SEWERS AND WATER oLosBTs. ANo. 551,598.

' Patented Dec. 17, 1895.

WITNESS/Es fs MAPHOTU-LVI'NQWASHINGI'UNAC.

UNITED STATES PATENT EEicE.

PATRICK F. OCONNOR, OF IVASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

PLUNGER FORSEWERS 'AND WATER-CLOSETS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 551,598, dated December 1'7, 1895. Applicata.. medmwy 15,1895. sentira. 535,009. (Nomad.)

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, PATRICK F. OCONNOR, a citizen of the United States, residing at Washington city, in the District of Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Plungers for Sewers and Tater- Closets; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to plun gers for removing obstructions in sewer and water-closet pipes or connections, and its object is to provide a plunger which will eifectually force the obstruction downward or forward without inconvenience from top or back iiow of the water and dbris in sewer or other pipes during the plunging operations, and another object is to provide a plunger which can be readily extended in length to adapt it for deep sewer-pipes, and while its capability of preventing up or back flow of water is secured its effectiveness is increased.

Another object is to prevent breaking of argillaceous sewer-pipes, and preventing unpleasant and injurious jars in operating the plunger.

Another object is to provide a plunger having either one or a plurality of moving plunger-heads, and which can, while being transported from the plumbers shop to the place of use and also back to the shop, have its parts screwed together so as not to dangle about or move upon one another.

My invention will be fully understood from the following description and claims, in connection with the accompanying drawings, which form part of the specification. l

Figure l is a front elevation of my improved plunger as adjusted for transportation from a plumbers shop to the place of use, and vice versa. Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail section of the upper portion of plunger as adjusted in Fig. l, the extension portion of the plunger not being shown. Fig. 3 is a detail section of the pumping end of the plunger. Fig. 4 represents a vertical section of va water-closet hopper and its soil-discharging pipe and myplunger with two plunger-heads and a sealing-plugor packed -head in use for removing a stoppage in the soil-discharge pipe or sewer-pipe with which it is connected; and Fig. 5 represents a vertical section of a sewer-trap pipe or other sewer-connecting wateror soil pipe and my plunger shortened and provided with a sealing-plug or packed head and one plunger-head, and also with a single T-coupling, which is used when the plunger-rod is extended, as in Fig. 4.

As my plunger is capable of operating with either one or a plurality of moving plungerheads it will be described first in the form represented in Figs. 2, 3, and 5, in which iigures A designates a plunger-rod, which may be solid or tubular. The tubular form is preferable on account of lightness and cheapness. This plunger-rod hasa screw-thread a and a cross-piece or handle cd near its upper end. The screw-thread serves as a means for fastening certain parts of the plunger firmly for transportation, as will be hereinafter set out. On the lower end of this rod another screw-thread a2 is provided, and upon this screw-threaded end a plunger-head B is fitted, being coniined between a removable socketed screw-threaded end stop-piece b and a thumb adjusting nut b. This plungerhead consists of two metal pieces c c and a hollow rubber packing-ring c2, said ring having the form of ahollow sphere with upper and lower portions cut away. The piece c slips freely on the plunger-rod, while the piece c' is fitted by a screw-thread to said rod. By screwing the nut down against the upper metal piece c the bulge of the packing-ring will beincreased, and the opposite will be the result if the nut is turned back. Thus the plungerhead 4can be made to fit pipes of different diameters within a given range of diameter.

Where the differences of the diameters of sewer-pipes are considerable it is necessary to substitute a larger plunger -head for the smaller plunger head, and therefore it is usual to provide a plurality of plunger-heads for each plunger-rod, and to use one or the other as necessity requires. By turning back the nut b', and turning the piston-head backward, said head can be carried higher on the rod by the nut b. I

In all of the sizes of the plunger-head B it will be understood that the diameter of the moving head, including the rubber packing- IOO ring c2, must not be so great as to prevent sufiicient leakage, for easy and practical working, between it and the sewer-pipe in which it is being used during the backward Inovement of the plunger and its rod, or that the rubber packing must be light and yielding enough to allow necessary leakage of either water or air, even if it extends to the inner surface of the sewer-pipe.

On the end stop-piece l) a rubber sheathing d is fitted so as to prevent an iron contact of the plunger-rod with the argillaceous sewerpipe, and thus save the pipe from being broken or cracked, and also prevent unpleasant sounds and avoid injurious jarring of the plunger and the operator. This plunger in order to operate practically should not be packed tight enough to prevent leakage of water between itself and the sewer-pipe. This is necessary in order that it may move freely. Besides this, it is not always practical, even if it were desirable, to pack it thus tightly, because the sewer-pipe does not always have a truly circular passage-way, and therefore the plunger-head packing cannot be made to `pack the plunger-head so that water and dbris will not escape and pass up by the plunger. This has been found to be the difficulty' with forcing plungers used by plumbers, and hence it has been necessary, when the obstruction is considerably below the surface of the ground, to dig down to the stoppage in the sewer-pipe and take out the stopped pipe-section, in order to get at the obstruction. To obviate this great expense and often injurious operation l have, while providing a plunger-head which will admit sufficient leakage between itself and the sewer-pipe to insure its practical opera-tion, also devised an auxiliary plugging or packing head C, in many respects similar in construction to the plunger-head proper B, but to be stationary while the plunger-head proper is moved downward and upward. This auxiliary plug or head comprises a tubular steinf, adapted for the plunger-rodA to Apass through and be steadied and guided thereby. This steinf has a long screw-thread f and a short screw-thread f2 on its outer surface, and on its upper end a double T-coupling, carrying handle-pieces f5 and having a short screwthread f3 on its inner surface, is applied.

The screw-thread f3 is to receive the screw-` thread CL, as will be hereinafter described. O11 `the long screw-thread the 'packing plug or head C is screwed, being adjustably confined on the stem by means of its sliding upper piece c and its screw-threaded piece c', a long upper thumb-nut g, and a cap base-nut f the latter nut being packed at g2, so as to prevent leakage of water along the piston-rod at the point where the piston-rod moves through the packing-plunger head. This packingplunger head consists of two metallic portions c3 c4 and a rubber packing-ring c5, the same as in the construction of the moving plungerhead proper. By screwing the nut g down, the rubber packing will be caused to bulge laterally to the extent required to pack the auxiliary packing or plugging head@` perfectly water-tight in the sewer-pipe or throat of a water-closet hopper. lt is the intention that this plugging-head shall not leak water, but shall act as a seal against the upward escape of water between itself and the surface against which the packing-ring of the head binds and forms a water-tight joint. rlhis combination of an adjustable sealing plug or head which remains stationary after being adjusted and its packing-ring fully set out or bulged, with a movable plunger-head which may leak water between itself and the sewerpipe and has its rod steadied and guided by the tubular stem of the auxiliary head or sealing-plug overcomes one of the greatest difficulties experienced by plumbers, while it lessens labor and avoids loss of time, and saves property-holders a large amont of the expense charged for work done by them. p

To operate with the plunger described and represented in Fig. 5 of the drawings, it is only necessary to properly adjust the packing of the moving plunger by screwing down the nut, and then to adjust it and the head or plug into the sewer -pipe, and then screw down the thumb-nut g of the sealing-plug, so as to secure a tight joint between it and the sewer-pipe. This done, the plunger proper must be moved by its handle a rapidly up and down, until the obstruction is forced down or along, and the free flow of waste water allowed. lf found necessary, the handle of the tubular guiding-stem of the sealinghead may be adjusted to rest upon the top of theground or upon the hopper of the closet. To arrange the parts of the scaling-plunger described and shown in Fig. 5 for transportation from and to the shop and from vand to the place of use, the tubular stem with its plungerhead attached is raised yup to the screwthread a and its coupling f4 screwed upon the same, as illustrated in Figs. l and 2. By examining Fig. l it will be seenthat an auxiliary moving plunger-head proper D is einployed. To thus employ this head an extension-section h of tubular plunger-rod is provided7 and on this section the plunger-head D is secured by means similarto those used for securing the lower plunger-head on its section of vplunger-rod. The packing-ring of this plunger-head is adjusted by a thumb-nut m, as shown. Vhe'n the auxiliary plungerhead is provided as an adjunct ofthe con.- struction of plunger shown in Fig. '5, two single T-couplings n n and a double T-coupling n? are employed in connection with the moving plunger-rod, and, after the stem of thesealing plug-head C is raised and screwed to the plunger-rod proper, the extension-seo tionA carrying the moving plunger-head I) is unscrewed from the plunger-rod with the coupling n2 attached to it, the T-head n is moved upon the plunger-rod, the double T- coupling slipped on the handle of the tubular stem of the sealin g plunger-head, and the sin- IOC) gle T-coupling n screwed to or united with the single T-coupling n', all as` illustrated in Fig. 1. Thus adjusted the plunger can be transported conveniently and without its parts turning on one another.

It is important sometimes in removing' stoppages in deep sewers to employ two moving plunger-heads on one line, as by this means increased action can be produced and there is greater certainty of removing the stoppage, and to thus employ two moving plungers it is only necessary to remove the lower capnut b of the plunger-head B, V(shown in Fig. 5,) and to screw the double T couple upon the screw-threaded end ofthe plunger-rod, and then to screw the cap-nut b upon the screw-threaded end of the extension portion.

What I claim is- 1. A water closet or sewer plunger device, comprising a moving piston rod with piston head applied upon it, adapted to leak water between itself and the sewer pipe in which it is applied, and a packed water tight sealing plug or head arranged on it; the said latter head being stationary and serving for confining any back or up flow of water, while the moving piston head while 'allowing leakage between itself and the sewer pipe serves for forcing out any obstructions that may be in the pipe, substantially as and for thel purpose described.

2. A water closet or sewer plunger device, comprising a moving piston rod with a plurality of piston heads applied upon it, and adapted to leak water between themselves and the sewer pipe in which they are applied, and a tubular stem fitted over the piston-rod and having a packed watertight sealing plug or head attached to it; the said latter head serving for coniining any back or up flow of water, the moving piston heads while allow- 4. In the within described water closet and y sewer plunger device, the sealing plug having a tubular stem provided with a handle at its upper end, in combination with the main and auxiliary piston rod sections A and h, the coupling 'n' on the piston rod section A, and the coupling n, on the piston rod section h, and means for connecting said couplings, substantially as and for the purpose described.

5. In the within described water closet and sewer plunger device the combination of the screw threaded sectional piston rod, two plunger piston heads on said rod, a sealing plug or packing head and the removable screw threaded stop end b, substantially as described.

6. In the within described water closet and sewer plunger device the combination of the screw threaded sectional piston rod, a plunger head on said rod, a sealing plug or packing head, and the removable screw threaded stop end b sheathed with a yielding material d, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I hereunto affix my signature inpresence of two witnesses.

PATRICK F. OCONNOR.

Vitnesses:

E.v T. FENWICK, W. HARVEY MUZZY. 

